I don't think i'm going to be participating in them that much anymore because of that.

It's not my intention to discourage participation...I just wish people would recognize that they don't know everything (isn't that being hypocritical?lol). I think the threads that have gotten into details such as,'how does Aikido respond to [insert technique here],' is great. It's the 'can Aikido whoop [insert art here]?' questions that really puts the word Aikido in the position of being a term with a fluxuating definition (the definition is limited to the poster's concept of Aikido...however limited.).

In the end, my motivation for the original post is that when I started out there was plenty of nay-sayers who were Aikidoka. In my case, thankfully, I wouldn't listen to them...even though they were sho-dan. Now, I see how wrong they really were. I'd like to think that someone who's thinking about Aikido--who might be a perfect fit--isn't getting a bunch of bad info from a MMAist who practices Aikido a little to "work on his locks," or whatever, and considers him/herself "knowledgeable" about the art and then starts talking about "where Aikido is lacking."

A great example of people who don't know everything about Aikido trying to tell others where it works and doesn't is back in the Pizza Parlor assault thread. I think there was a handful of posts saying "aikido wouldn't work there." Certainly, I wouldn't disagree: Your Aikido wouldn't work there...maybe you don't see the potential and therefore, are limited in the types of energy you can deal with. However, don't say "Aikido can't deal with it"....or, another art.